Mountain

For a brief moment, all three full-size Mountain Knives are here in one place.

The top-most is my personal knife, 110% size. The black-handled one is 115%, and the green also 115%.

The maroon one is different in several respects, but the other pattern is actually my favorite.

Handle material comes spec’d often at 1/4″ or 3/8″, but sometimes is oversize. Oddly, the green handled knife is the slimmest by about 0.075″. I found I like the simple straight smoothing shape the best. The ergo contouring is hit or miss on this handle profile, as on the maroon knife. However it’s a great *thickness* at 0.8″. The black handle is a full 0.9″ thick – very hand-filling and comfortable. I prefer a bit things a bit more slim and slightly lighter.

My personal ideal would be the thickness of the maroon with the contour of the green. Obviously this varies by hand… The green knife is a couple steps short of completion – full post on it when it’s ready.

This knife is a slimmed version of the Mountain Knife pattern executed at 100% scale in Aldo’s 1084, at ~0.135″. The original Mountain knife concept calls for 5/32″ in this size, but I have slimmed the pattern from top to bottom to produce this somewhat more elegant little blade. The shorter height (spine to edge) requires slightly thinner stock to retain the intended bevel geometry consistent with the original concept. I left the pre-sharpened edge a bit thicker than usual in keeping with the Mountain knife theme, and given it a stronger, steeper edge which might get raised in the future by me or the eventual owner.

This is a wicked little blade with a ‘down from the mountains into town’ feel. The black linen micarta scales are cut from a 3/16″ sheet which keeps the entire package trim overall.

Here is the first full-size ‘Mountain’ knife.
This is intended to be my ‘off into the mountains for a month’ belt knife.
From the start, this pattern was planned to be in 3/16″ at 115% scale of the original drawing.
This first-finished large version is 110% with a slightly straightened spine.

Specs:
3/16″ O1, oven soaked, oil quenched
3.8″ high flat ground blade, 8.4″ OAL
spine jimping between the handle and the drop
gently rounded spine forward of the drop where the grind meets the spine
burgundy linen micarta with 3/16″ brass pins
The choil was cut with a 1/4″ file to fit a 1/4″ ferro rod – not sure how that will work out yet.
600grit hand-rubbed finish all around

I made this as an EDC for myself because I wanted something thin and sharp. My earlier EDC’s are a bit thicker than I prefer. The slightly larger scale and taller blade in the same 1/8″ material allowed me to get exactly the grind I wanted for an EDC. The bigger versions will be a little beefier. This is the first test of the Mountain knife design, and I LIKE it. The fully realized version of this design will be 115% @ 4″ in 3/16″ stock.